Problem is, the system is located smack in the middle of the threatened desert tortoise habitat and the companies that built the system have already had to allocate $56 million to care for and relocate these ground dwellers. At least one major environmental group has argued the plant should have never been built on its current location.

“What I’ve discovered along the way is the issue of building renewable energy is a lot more complicated than one what might assume from afar,” says Stillings, who has been photographing Ivanpah since 2010.

Known for his photos of other large-scale industrial engineering projects at the intersection of nature and human activity, Stillings hopes the Ivanpah photos provide a way for people on opposite sides of the issue to find common ground for negotiations.

Kristin Hunter, a spokesperson for BrightSource Energy, which is one of three owners of the project along with Google and NRG Energy, says the project did take into consideration the environmental impact of the solar plant and purposely placed it in an area that already saw some human traffic. She says the area where Ivanpah sits is close to a major highway and a golf course, among other things, and is trafficked by people on all-terrain vehicles.

“[Jamey Stillings’] photos should do a good job demonstrating the existing development at the site,” she says.

Barbara Boyle, a senior representative at the Sierra Club’s regional field office in Sacramento, disagrees with Hunter’s assessment and says Ivanpah could have been located at any number of other locations where it would have had less impact on the environment and the tortoises that live there.

“As soon as this proposal was on the ground we went out there and looked at the site and came to the conclusion as many other people did that this was an amazingly intact area and that it should not be disturbed,” she says.

Boyle says there are multiple areas in Southern California, including old dried-up agricultural lands and mining areas, that would have been more suitable. The existing infrastructure in the area mentioned by Hunter has already contributed to a decline in the number of tortoises, Boyle says. She and others worry about how the population will be affected as the Ivanpah project is completed.

“It is a species that has been here for many, many millennia and in the last century the populations have declined radically,” she says. “Like the Northern Spotted Owl [the tortoise] has really become a bellwether of the health of the ecosystem.”

Hunter says BrightSource Engery and all the other companies involved have done everything they can to protect the animals and ensure they thrive. Among other things they’ve been working with dozens of biologists to relocate the animals in nearby habitat and have started a “head start” program for juveniles of the species that protects them until they are big enough to protect themselves. To date Hunter says 144 tortoises (77 adults, 67 juveniles) have been found on site and all 77 adults have been relocated.

“Caring for the tortoise is something we take very seriously,” she says.

Before starting the project Stillings says he was a proponent of renewable energy. After being exposed to the multiple sides of the Ivanpah project he says he still is but realizes that finding a way forward is a complicated balance. He was back photographing Ivanpah just last month and says he plans to follow it all the way through completion, which is scheduled to happen at the end of 2013.

Denied the access he wanted on the ground, Stillings was forced to shoot most of his photos from a helicopter. In retrospect, it was a blessing in disguise since the aerial photos show Ivanpah’s size and how much impact the project has had on the surrounding landscape.

His photos from the project have already begun to stir up dialogue and have been published in and exhibited at several important venues including The New York Times Magazine and the photo-eye Gallery. With the backing of the Blue Earth Alliance, a non-profit created to support documentary photographers, he’s also started a project called “Changing Perspectives” that he hopes will follow other large-scale renewable energy developments across the world in an effort to continue stoking the conversation.

“Obviously this is a complicated issue, there are a lot of shades of gray,” he says. “I’ve been learning at the same time everyone else is learning. I anticipate that my perceptions will continue to evolve and others’ should as well.”